At the time of writing this blog, Valentine's Day was right around the corner. Love was in the air, teddy bears and chocolates had blossomed all over my Amazon Prime homepage, and a flurry of statistics and fun facts about the holiday had hit my news feed:

*9 million proposals were expected to be made on Valentine's day
*1 million people were expected to change their relationship status on social media

That’s a lot of commitment!

Recently, at pMD, I’ve been working with physician practices on another area of commitment: who to entrust with their revenue cycle. Health care practitioners rely on their billing teams to send out health insurance claims and patient statements to keep their practices functioning. Practices are heavily dependent on the effectiveness of their revenue cycle to keep their doors open and to track their financial health. When looking at an existing or potential partnership with a billing team, how do you know if it’s the forever commitment or if it’s time to re-evaluate?

Will U B Mine?

Choosing the right billing team can feel a lot like speed dating with potential billing companies, certified coders, and billing specialist candidates. Thirty minutes to an hour-long conversation with multiple candidates to determine if this is the right long-term fit for your group is a huge investment of time but at the same time doesn’t seem like enough. However, most groups are hard-pressed to make a decision quickly for fear that accounts receivable will just back up and incomes halt to a dead stop. When there is urgency and a need, it can be tricky to sort through exactly what you are looking for. At the end of the day, they will all get your insurance claims out the door, right?

There are three key elements that you can use to evaluate to see if your current or future billing service is the one for you.

Trust

Do you trust this billing team? Making sure you have communication flowing both ways is key. pMD is built on a passion for communication and that remains a foundational item for us in revenue cycle management. Clear communication helps practices by keeping clinical and administrative teams on the same page with updates, changes, and opportunities for improvement.

Another element to look for is expertise in the industry, and I don’t just mean the amount of time spent in billing. Health care practices come in all shapes and sizes. There are specialty-specific and regional considerations when it comes to billing claims. Having a partner that understands the intricacies of your practice from the revenue side as well as the clinical side will allow for trust and ultimately help your practice grow.

Transparency

Do you know where you stand financially? As a practice owner, there shouldn’t be a challenge in getting a report for your data. Knowing where your business is financially is critical to making sure you are hitting the benchmarks and goals you have planned for. Are you able to see where the inefficiencies are in your revenue cycle? Identifying the source of creeping charge lag, the root cause of an increase of a specific denial, or even trends in payment amounts is the first step to set your practice up with a plan to correct it.

Partnership

Can you count on your billing team to support your goals? Medical billing has a ton of data flowing through the system and your billing team is the closest to that information. Their insight can help identify and propose solutions to address items that are holding you back from your full potential. These are the specialists that can help educate your team on best practices or provide background information on why different elements are important to claims. Your billing service is the team supporting you and your practice and is the one you need to be invested in your success.

At pMD, we want to see you succeed! Let’s chat more about our billing service offerings and what we can do to help you.

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